I had a terrible first straight razor shave, severe pulling with the razor. I kindly ask for advice on what I did wrong.

What happened:

I experienced severe pulling while shaving my chin and the portion of my neck just below the chin. I really could not get the razor through my beard WTG or ATG because it kept coming to a full stop every centimeter or so. Eventually, I was able to remove most of the beard with several passes, mostly XTG. Pulling was also bad above upper lip and on the jaw line, but not as bad as chin. Cleaned these areas with several ATG passes also. Cheeks seemed to cut okay WTG and ATG. I tried a final pass ATG, but there was so much pulling that I gave up. Overall, shave was not very close, and I had to clean my face up in all areas with my electric razor. I did not get any nicks or cuts.

Beard:

Hot shower. Two hot towels afterwards. Applied thick lather of Proraso with Vulvix badger brush. About four days growth, which for me is hard, patchy stubble about 1/8" long.

Razor:

Brand-new, never used TI Super Gnome, 6/8, one half-hollow ground, razor from Classic Shaving. Razor was sharpened by CS's service (Lynn Abrams) before it was shipped to me. I stropped the razor, about 20 passes, on the Latigo side of a new Tony Miller paddle strop. I may have put a bit too much pressure during the first five or so passes, as this was my first stropping experience. However, I always kept on the spine of the razor flat on the strop to avoid curling the edge.

Technique:

Followed the advice on Lynn Abrams video, "World of Straight Razor Shaving," purchased from CS. Blade angle was between twenty and thirty degrees. Just enough pressure to keep the blade on my skin. I periodically rinse the blade under hot water, and I dried the blade by wiping it on a hand towel.

My thoughts:

After reading various threads on this problem, I am thinking that I may have dulled my razor during stropping. However, logic suggests to me that one cannot curl an edge on a solid paddle strop, as one can with a flexible hanging strop, even though I may have used slightly too much pressure on my first five passes.

I am also thinking that I may have dulled my edge when I wipe the razor on the hand towel. I noticed in Lynn's video that he does not allow the towel to touch the cutting edge of the razor when he wipes the blade dry periodically during his shave. My cutting edge did touch the towel. However, I was gentle, and my wiping motion was parallel to the blade, rather than perpendicular to the blade, as in stropping.

Help!